Last week, I ran this contest:

Recently, Jesus was struck by lightning:

Why was he being punished by God?

(Thanks to Chris for the suggestion!)

Here are the Top 5 responses (with submitters)!

5|

God was trying to make his skin color a little more realistic.

(Mike)

4|

Jesus stole God’s last Zebra Cake, as forbidden by Commandment 11: Thou shalt not covet thy father’s snacky cake.

(Nadine)

3|

“… and then I turned a stone into a fish THIS BIG!!… Ouch! Damn it Dad!”

(Jonathan)

2|

“Hey dad, I’ve got this killer itch on my back. Could you–oh yeah. That’s the spot.”

(Flusterphonic)

1|

That’s not lightening, that’s his noodly appendage captured on film. RAmen

(THz)

Congratulations to the winners! The top three will be receiving specially-made Friendly Atheist wristbands (in the color of their choice), sent to me by blog reader Shauna and her sister Danni!

…

If you’d like to win your own wristband, here is the new contest:

The Mormon church now has its own publishing imprint! The first project will be to “publish all of the known personal papers, correspondence, journals and other primary sources of Mormonism’s founding leader, Joseph Smith…”

What other titles will the Mormon church be publishing?

Funny and creative answers will have a shot at winning.

Good luck!


[tags]atheist, atheism, contest[/tags]

Horace, an assistant professor of English, was teaching his university students about Romanticism. He assigned his students a paper about the works of Kant, Burke, Shelley, Blake, Wordsworth, and the like.

He received a number of papers discussing… someone else:

For this assignment specifically, I get a lot of students who reference both the language of, and often the fact of, their personal relationship with their lord and savior Jesus Christ.

I can’t help but roll my eyes when Blake and his visionary cosmology, or Wordsworth and his “semi-atheism,” or heaven forfend, the outspoken atheist Shelley, are revealed to be Christians along the line [of] Joel Osteen and my parents.

Let’s get more specific:

Three papers in a row this evening found references to poets’ beliefs that were both counter to all evidence in their biographies, to what was discussed in class, and which are completely ahistorical: the kind of personal teddy-bear god that has inf(l)ected a lot of popular American religious discourse–especially for teens. I learned that when wordsworth speaks about nature in Tintern Abbey, he really means “Jesus,” that the Tyger solves the problem of evil because it shows us that all of creation is part of God’s Work, God’s Plan and God’s Love. The third paper references the author’s desire to find “the presence of God in Blake’s writing,” but then finally acknowledges that this isn’t an appropriate strategy. I’m not entirely sure why the author felt the need to signpost a rejected interpretive strategy, but I wish more students understood this.

What is the reason for this?

Horace isn’t sure:

Are they witnessing to me? Do they believe that they are taking a stand? Are they so deeply immersed in a kind of totalizing theology that they can imagine no other way through which to view experience?

I have yet to experience this perk of teaching in math class.

Surely, there must be a way to work Jesus into the interior angles of a hexagon…


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

The Interfaith Alliance presents the “Top 10 Moments in the Race for Pastor-in-Chief” — basically, the worst abuses of religion in the primary campaigns thus far:

It’s a nice video, but the Barack Obama clips don’t belong there. Is he pandering? Yes. Is he abusing religion? Not at all. He’s using rhetoric to play to a crowd.

Mike Huckabee, on the other hand, is completely serious when he talks about changing the Constitution to “meet God’s standards.”

(via Atheist Media Blog)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

After writing about an atheist denied admission into the Elks club because of her lack of faith, reporter Margie Boulé was contacted by an atheist in Portland.

Sylvia Benner read the story and wasn’t surprised. “I am an atheist as well,” she wrote. “I have experience with this ‘last bias.’”

Sylvia, and other atheists, believe discrimination against them is one of the last acceptable prejudices in our society.

This discrimination is occurring in a place where even Sylvia admits, “is a pretty sane place to live if you’re a nonbeliever.”

What has Sylvia experienced?

Sylvia says her 11-year-old son has been denied admission to two local private schools because of his atheism. “Both are Christian and both say they admit people outside their own faith — but not, apparently, people of no faith.”

Sylvia says her son has had to deal with negative responses to his atheism at school. When he told a girl he didn’t believe in God, “She said, ‘Then you’re a bad person.’ ”

The one thing Sylvia and other nonbelievers really miss, she says, is the sense of community that comes with church membership.

For that reason, and to create a location where they can get together — a local bookstore recently declined to host a monthly atheist book group, citing fear of controversy — Sylvia and others are starting a local chapter affiliated with the national Center for Inquiry (www.centerforinquiry.net).

It’s one thing to not be let into a private Christian school, but being denied space to discuss literature… in a bookstore?! What “controversy” was the bookstore worried about? Rational dialogue? A spirited debate? Perhaps it was the baby bonfire that would surely take place before the discussion began…

Sylvia, who’s 42, looks forward to getting together with others who don’t feel like they have to “admit” to their beliefs, who aren’t afraid to say the word “atheist” out loud.

“We have some education to do,” Sylvia says. Maybe it would change some minds in America. Perhaps, she says, “we wouldn’t be at the bottom of the list when it comes to acceptable behavior.”

It’s a long road… but we’re making some headway.

(Thanks to Primate in Repose for the link!)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

The Onion makes me laugh:

The best answer:

Hehe.


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christianity[/tags]

The Freethinker blog has an interview with atheist YouTube celebrity Pat Condell.

Pat is as entertaining in print as he is in his videos.

FT: What can we do to resist the growing influence of religion?
PC: We can speak out. That’s what the internet is for, and it’s the only reason my voice is being heard. We need to make as much noise as religious people do, and with as much certainty about our right to do so.

Nobody should be bullied into showing respect they don’t think is deserved. If you hear somebody claiming special treatment because of their faith you’re entitled to say: “No, I object to this. It offends me, it insults my beliefs, and it’s a violation of my human rights.”

Use their tactics if you feel strongly enough. Make a nuisance of yourself. Make an official complaint. Take it to a tribunal. As an atheist you’re part of a minority whose beliefs are constantly ignored and marginalised while religious prejudice is pandered to and encouraged, and you have every right to be offended by that.

Also, I would urge everyone to join the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association, both of whom do excellent work in the cause of sanity.

Remember, one person on their own can’t do much, but a million people each doing a little every day can change things very quickly.

And for Pat’s legions of fans, some good news!

FT: What about the future? Will we see a collection of your videos on the market?
PC: Yes. The Richard Dawkins Foundation is issuing a non-profit DVD of my first thirty-five videos which should be out soon.

Check out the full interview here.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Random question:

As an atheist, have you ever given money to a Christian organization?

(What was the reason?)

Obviously, there are Christian groups like the Salvation Army that many people have donated to. However, I’m referring more to groups like Campus Crusade for Christ, which exist solely to advance the Christian faith (and everyone knows it).


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

On last night’s episode of American Idol, singer David Archuleta sang John Lennon‘s song Imagine.

The song contains these terrific lyrics:

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

Guess which verse was cut during his performance tonight…?

Archuleta said he just “preferred” the other verses when pressed by judge Randy Jackson about why he left out that part of the song.

I wonder, though, if he was worried that singing a lyric about “imagining no religion” would lose him the votes needed to stay on the show.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

They’re both recipients of the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism given out by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy and the Harvard Secular Society.

Rushdie received the award last year. Greg Graffin, the lead singer/songwriter for the punk band Bad Religion, will be receiving it on April 26^th.

Before you dismiss Graffin as being in a different (lesser?) league from the noted author, take a look at an excerpt from his bio:

Before becoming a professor at UCLA, Graffin received his PhD in Zoology from Cornell University, where he founded the Cornell Evolution Project, the first major study of the beliefs of the world’s leading evolutionary biologists regarding traditional religion, naturalism, and the philosophical implications of their scientific work. Graffin has publicly declared himself to be an atheist, and he has expressed his passionate views on faith and religion in his music while exploring them in his research.

Very cool.

If you’re in the Cambridge area at the end of April, tickets are available for the ceremony. More information is here.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Then we’d be smoking pot, buying tricks, killing the babies, crucifying Christians, and being altogether hypocritical. There would also be lots of the sex.

NSFW video brought to you by The Blood of Christ Repertory Players.

Is it real or satire?

You decide.

(Thanks to David for the link!)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]